
CUYLER 



AUGl718St^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap,__.l___ Copyright No. 
Shelf_ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/ 



WELL-BUILT 



The Deeper Life Series. 

Handsomely printed and daintily bound. 
Illustrated. 

Pricey 23 cents each, postpaid. 



WELL-BUILT. 

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. 

ANSWERED! 

Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D., 
Rev. R. A. Torrey, D.D., Rev. C. 
H. Yatman, Rev. Edgar E. David- 
son, and Thomas E. Murphy. 

THE INDWELLING GOD. 

Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, D. D. 

LITTLE SERMONS FOR ONE. 

Amos R. Wells. 

A FENCE OF TRUST. {Poems.) 

Mrs. Mary F. Butts. 



United Society of Christian Endeavor. 

Boston a7td Chicago. 



REV. THEODORE L. CUYLER, D 



Weil-Built 



Plain Talks . . . 
To Young People 



By . . A. 
Theodore L. Cuyler 




United Society of Christian Endeavor 
Boston and Chicago 




1-2 (SO 9 



Copyright, i8g8 
By United Society of Christian Endeavor 




Colonial Press 
Electrotyped and 
C. H. Simoiids Co, 
Bosto7i, U.S. A. 



;\V0 copies ReCEiVED- 

id Printed By)<\j\J\JsSL^\^ \^ \ C> 



2n 



a9> 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Well-built . . . . . .7 

II. How TO Choose Your Calling . . 14 

III. Sin of Trifling with the Affections . 21 

IV. Mischief of Little Things . . .27 

V. How TO Deal with Temptations . . 34 
VI. The Wise Saving of Money . . .41 

VII. Use Your Gifts 47 



I. 



WELL-BUILT. 



O^^gpHE most wonderful of all preachers 



ish class built on the shifting sand ; and, when the 
flood of trials came, their flimsy structures "fell 
in." Of how a wiser class base and build their 
characters for all eternity, I propose to say a 
few things to the thousands of my young readers. 

The first thing is to secure a solid foundation. 
That foundation is not to be created ; it is already 
provided, — Christ Jesus. On this everlasting 
Rock of Ages, a divine Redeemer atoning for 
your sins, a divine Teacher instructing you by 
his perfect commandments, a divine Regenerator 
changing your inmost heart, a divine Supporter 
strengthening your will, a divine Mediator with 
God watching over you, and putting his ever- 
lasting arm of love underneath your weakness, — 
this is the foundation that no floods of tempta- 




closed the most wonderful of all sermons 
by drawing a parallel between two 
classes of character-builders. The fool- 



7 



8 



WELL-BUILT. 



tion can wash out or undermine. All else than 
this is crumbling dirt or shifting sand. Shallow 
conversions make shallow Christians. I trust that 
you have dug deep, and laid your foundations 
well. The Minot's Ledge lighthouse is not only 
built on a rock; it is built with iron bolts and 
clamps into the rock. So you must be built into 
Christ by a living union of your weakness to his 
strength, your ignorance to his omniscience, your 
poverty to his wealth of grace, your sinfulness 
to his perfect righteousness. This is faith's grip 
that holds ; this is the thorough work that goes 
down deeper than mere excitement or emotion or 
formal professions, and it binds your soul fast to 
the omnipotent Son of God. The best part of a 
true Christian is the unseen part, as the vital part 
of a tree is its root. So the innermost graces that 
lie, as it were, in the very depths of a Christian soul 
next to Christ are the most precious and powerful 
and enduring portion of the man. 

But a building is not done when the foundation 
is laid. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is only 
the initial process, and then comes the command to 
build up yourselves on our most holy faith. God's 
quarry is rich in materials. It would be a good 
thing for our churches if solid granite were in 
greater demand. Flashing marble is very orna- 
mental for lintels and architrave and capitals. But 



WELL-BUILT. 



9 



in these times we need more firm granite of honesty, 
courage, truthfulness, and self-denial. Every now 
and then a church is disfigured by an ugly crack or 
rent in its walls, from the fact that a bit of friable 
pumice-stone was put in there in the shape of a 
swindling or frivolous professor. Wholesome disci- 
pline is often a duty ; and the sooner that pumice- 
stone comes out, the more creditable is it for the 
honor and strength of a Christian church. What is 
true of a church as God's building is equally true 
of individual character ; nothing should go into a 
Christian's character except what is taken from 
God's quarry. 

Some Christians are not built up symmetrically. 
They are lopsided, and their painful deficiency is 
on the ethical side of their religion. They can sing 
in a prayer-meeting, and pray devoutly, and exhort 
fluently ; but outside of the meeting they cannot 
always be trusted. What they lack is a rigid sense 
of right and a constant adherence to it. They need 
more conscience, a conscience to detect sin, and a 
granite-like principle to resist its seductions. The 
word of these Christians is not always to be relied 
on ; in matters of business they do not always go by 
the air-line. I once dealt with a man who was 
quite an exhorter in his church, and liked to talk to 
me in his market-stall about the " good times " they 
were enjoying in their revival meetings. Yet when 



lO 



WELL-BUILT. 



this devout dealer's meat was " weighed in the 
balance," it was too often found "wanting." He 
had more emotion than conscience in his religion. 
That eminent theologian, Dr. Charles Hodge, of 
Princeton, at the funeral of a certain excellent man, 
said of him, " He was not only pious, he was good." 
He went on to explain that there is sometimes a 
piety that expends much fervor in devotions, yet is 
wanting in that conscientious goodness that abhors 
everything wrong, and is scrupulous in keeping 
Christ's commandments. Such people are not well- 
built Christians. 

Every wise builder makes constant use of his 
plumb-line. All the showy ornamentation that he 
can put on his edifice amounts to nothing if the 
walls are not perpendicular. Sometimes we see a 
flimsy structure whose bulging walls are shored up 
by props and skids to keep them from tumbling 
into the street. I am afraid that there are thousands 
of reputations in commerce, in politics, and even in 
the church, that are shored up by various devices. 
" Take heed how ye build." The man in Christ's 
parable, who founded his home on loose sand or 
gravel, might boast that his building looked just as 
fine as that of his neighbor, who built on the rock. 
He cared only for appearances, and made no allow- 
ance for storms or floods or God's law of gravitation. 
So the Master tells us that the ill-based and ill-built 



WELL-BUILT. 



house " fell in." It is a mere question of time how 
soon every character will fall in if it is not based on 
the rock and built according to Jesus Christ's plumb- 
line. It may go down in this world ; it is sure to 
go down in the next. We ought to lay the plumb- 
line up against all our religious acts and services, 
even against our prayers. Do we pray only to save 
appearances, and because we are " called on " to do 
it? Or do we pray from sincere hungerings for 
spiritual blessings Pledges to take part in meet- 
ings are good things ; but be sure to keep Jesus 
Christ behind the pledge. Some contributions of 
money may in man's sight loom very large, yet in 
God's sight may be very moderate, because they 
cost the giver no sacrifice or self-denial. The poor 
widow's two mites stood the Master's measurement 
admirably. 

If failing to use the divine plumb-line in character- 
building is a great mistake, it is another mistake 
that the little every-day actions are made of small 
account. You could hardly make a worse blunder. 
Christian influence mainly depends on what you 
may regard as little things. It is the aggregate of 
a good man's or good woman's life that tells for the 
honor of our Lord and Saviour. A little boy 
watched the process of building a house across the 
street until his father asked him whether he meant 
to be a bricklayer. " No, papa ; but I am thinking 



12 



WELL-BUILT. 



what a small thing a brick is, and yet what a big 
house they build out of them." The child had got 
hold of the true secret of constructing a beautiful or 
a powerful character. It is by conscientious atten- 
tion to the minute thoughts, words, and deeds of 
every-day life. It is by adding the brick of courage 
to the brick of faith, and to this the brick of tem- 
perance and the brick of patience and the brick of 
brotherly love and the brick of honesty and of benev- 
olence, that a noble Christian character is reared. 
Nothing is of small account that involves your in- 
fluence in a sharp-eyed world. Other people's eyes 
are upon you as well as your Master's eyes. He 
made you a Christian to be looked at. It was by 
the daily addition of one good deed to another that 
such Christians as William E. Dodge and Samuel 
F. Smith and Mary Lyon and Clara Barton and 
George H. Stuart and Harlan Page reared their 
solid structures of character. 

The Athenian architects of the Parthenon finished 
the upper side of the matchless frieze as perfectly 
as the lower side, because the goddess Minerva saw 
that side. Every one of the five thousand statues 
in the cathedral of Milan is wrought as if God's eye 
were on the sculptor. Michael Angelo said that he 
" carved for eternity." Every true, blood-bought 
Christian is a habitation of God through his Spirit. 
Young friends, build for eternity. And let every 



WELL' BUILT. 



13 



one take heed how he buildeth; for the Architect- 
in-chief will inspect each one's work on the great 
day of judgment. 

" I count this thing to be grandly true : 

That a righteous deed is a step towards God, 
Lifting the soul from its common clod 
To a purer air, and a clearer view. 

Heaven is not reached by a single bound. 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 

And we mount to its summit round by round." 



11. 



HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CALLING. 

APPY is the man who finds what his 
work is, and does it ! To find it is to 
find our calUng, and to do it is to find 
our highest joy and peace." So wrote 
the large-hearted and eloquent Dr. Norman Macleod 
of Scotland, and to those true words I can echo a 
hearty Amen ! 

On the other hand, hardly any more lamentable 
lot can befall any man than to mistake his work, 
and engage in any occupation for which he is not 
fitted. This is especially true in regard to the gos- 
pel ministry. The peculiar training for the pulpit 
is not of such a character as to fit a man for any 
other profession, and when once ordained to the 
ministry, it is not easy to demit the sacred office. 
Some who have not been successful in the pulpit 
have found a congenial harbor in a college " chair " 
or the secretaryship of a religious society or in edi- 
torial pursuits ; but many more are drifting from 
place to place in search after pulpits that do not 
14 




HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CALLING. I 5 

seem to be searching after them. This pitiable 
waste of a man's only life in this world is hardly 
less than a living tragedy. 

The three most vitally important choices for any 
young man to make are : a Saviour for his soul, 
a good wife for his home, and the right occupation 
for his life. On this last point let me offer a few 
fatherly suggestions. 

My own childhood and early youth were spent in 
a thrifty rural region in western New York, and at 
that time it was the general custom of the country 
boys either to learn a mechanical trade or to follow 
their fathers' pursuit as farmers. Occasionally some 
bright lad prepared for college, or some ambitious 
one headed for New York to seek a " situation." 

A mighty change has come over young America 
in these latter days. Among the ancient Jews there 
was a proverb, " He who does not bring up his son 
for a trade brings up a boy for the devil." But our 
native American boys quite scorn the idea of me- 
chanical pursuits, and leave such manual labors to 
the hands of foreigners. It is quite a waste of 
breath to remind them that Benjamin Franklin was 
a printer, that Roger Sherman and Vice-president 
Henry Wilson were shoemakers, that Elihu Burritt 
was a blacksmith, and that Governor Banks of Mas- 
sachusetts "graduated from an institution which 
had a factory-bell on the roof and a water-wheel at 



i6 



WELL-BUILT. 



the bottom." I cannot put my eye on a single 
American boy who is learning a mechanical trade 
(unless it be telegraphy), and about all the practical 
mechanics hereabouts are of foreign extraction. 

This fact does not give me any peculiar satisfac- 
tion ; and it affords still less satisfaction to see the 
swarm of young men who pour into our great city 
begging for a situation in a store or in a warehouse, 
or in a counting-room or a bank, or some place in 
which they can find employment without soiling 
their hands. An easy place and good pay is about 
their highest ambition. And the melancholy array 
of poor fellows who wear out their shoes and their 
patience in a vain pursuit for a " situation " makes 
another chapter of living tragedies. City life is full 
of perilous attractions ; and alas, how many young 
moths fly into the candle, only to be scorched to 
death ! 

In selecting your occupation, endeavor first to 
find out what the Creator made you for. Consult 
your natural bent and talent. If you have a talent 
for trade, you may seek an opening for your energies 
in a counting-room or a store. If you have a natural 
aptitude for the branches connected with medical 
science, and what may be called a medical enthusi- 
asm, you may strive to become a physician. If your 
mathematical capacity fit you for it, you may pre- 
pare to be an engineer. 



now TO CHOOSE YOUR CALLING. 1/ 

Study yourself ; study the leadings of Providence, 
and pray earnestly for divine direction. A man sel- 
dom fails in life who understands his forte, and few 
ever succeed who do not understand it. 

Seek for a useful and productive calling, and steer 
clear of any business that savors of " speculation " 
as you would of a gambling-den or a bottle of 
brandy. There is too much of what may be called 
the " gambling element " in several lines of busi- 
ness ; it works like a fever on the brain, and is not 
wholesome to strong religious health and character. 
Haste to be rich — and rich at all hazards — has 
sent thousands to perdition. That poisonous mala- 
ria is in the air ; look out for it ! 

Having decided on the calling best adapted to 
your talents, don't be ashamed to begin at the 
bottom and work like a beaver. 

Isaac Rich, of Boston, began by selling oysters at 
a stand in the market, and he brought them there 
in a wheelbarrow from the sloops. He became a 
millionaire, and bequeathed $1,700,000 to establish 
the Boston University. Many a Methodist student 
has reached the ministry in Isaac Rich's wheel- 
barrow. A city judge in New York told me that he 
hammered down paving-stones in the street to earn 
enough to pay the captain of the sloop who brought 
him to New York from Rhode Island. That is the 
sort of fibre to make a good Christian Endeavorer. 



i8 



WELL-BUILT. 



That noble Christian philanthropist, the late 
William E. Dodge, started as an errand boy in a 
store, swept the floor, and took down the shutters in 
the morning. For this he received his board and 
fifty dollars a year. Out of that salary, he told 
me, he laid by some money. Before he died he 
knew what it was to give at the rate of a thousand 
dollars a day to great religious and benevolent 
movements. I once had the privilege to introduce 
him to that prince of English philanthropists, Lord 
Shaftesbury, and I said, " My lord, here is our 
American Shaftesbury." 

The multiplication of colleges in our country has 
multiplied largely the candidates for what are called 
the " learned professions." Some enter them who 
are better fitted for a farm or a shop. Of whatever 
other occupations there be a scarcity, there is no 
lack of lawyers in almost every town. A prominent 
lawyer in New York remarked that " unless a young 
man had remarkable abilities for the bar, or in- 
herited wealth, or influential family connections, the 
profession of the law is the most genteel method 
of starving that is practised." That there is always 
room enough up at the top is poor consolation to 
the young lawyers or doctors who are struggling for 
a living down at the bottom. 

However crowded may be the legal or medical 
or mercantile or engineering profession, I am confi- 



HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CALLING. 1 9 

dent that the one Hne of business that is not over- 
done is good preaching. No man is so absolutely 
certain to find immediate and constant employment 
as a capable, earnest, soul-loving, and truly conse- 
crated minister of Jesus Christ. Vacant pulpits are 
constantly on the lookout for them. Any healthy, 
vigorous young minister, who has had a divine call 
to his holy work, is not likely to wait long for a 
call to a pulpit. 

What is a call to the ministry ? Reduced to the 
shortest and simplest English, it is the ability to 
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that 
people will come to hear it. This last clause is very 
important. More than one young man of fervent 
piety and scholarly culture has failed sadly in the 
ministry because he had not the gift of preaching. 
People would not come to listen to him ; and it is 
very certain that we can do but little good to those 
who do not like us, and none at all to those who 
will not come to hear our message. 

Good health, the gift of speech, a Christ-loving 
heart, industry, and a holy zeal to win souls, — if you 
have these, you may prepare for the ministry at 
whatever cost of toil or self-denial. A faithful, soul- 
winning minister need not wish to change thrones 
with an archangel. 

Of the host of young Christians who may read 
this article, only a small proportion may enter a 



20 



WELL-BUILT. 



pulpit; but all of them may serve Jesus Christ in 
their calling, however humble it be. In choosing 
your business, aim higher than to make a living; 
aim to make a life worth carrying up to the judg- 
ment-seat of Christ. 



III. 



THE SIN OF TRIFLING WITH AFFECTIONS. 

WO blessings survived the wreck in the 
Garden of Eden, — the sacred Sabbath 
and the sacred institution of marriage. 
In spite of all the scoffs of the "free- 
love" school, and the taunts of those who have con- 
tracted unwise aUiances, it still remains true that 
wedlock is not only dictated by the sexual instincts, 
but in the vast majority of cases is productive of 
general happiness. 

There are many of us who can testify that, next 
to a faithful Saviour, the most precious of all bless- 
ings is a discreet, devoted, and faithful wife. Mr. 
Gladstone once said to me that one of the greatest 
dangers that threatens our country is the lax idea 
of the marital relation and the increasing facility of 
divorces. These evils sap the very foundations 
of domestic life, and undermine the purities and 
sanctities of the home. 

It is vitally important that all young people who 
call themselves Christians, and who profess to be 

21 




22 



WELL-BUILT. 



governed by a Christian conscience, should look at 
all questions bearing on the relations of sex from a 
Christian standpoint. The core of all happy mar- 
riages is pure, unselfish, inextinguishable love. The 
beautiful language of St. Paul's letter to the church 
of Corinth may be fitly applied to a wise wedlock : 
" love seeketh not her own ; love beareth all things, 
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
things. '^4 

|The throne of pure, unselfish love is in the heart. } 
When marriage is made a mere mercenary specula- 
tion of dollars and cents, or when it is contracted 
to gratify animal lusts, it is but little removed from 
legalized prostitution. Bitterly do those pay for it 
who take the solemn vows of matrimony from mo- 
tives as base as these. ( The only happy marriages, 
the only ones that will stand the wear and tear of 
life, the only ones that will grow brighter and 
brighter on to the "golden wedding," are those 
which are bottomed and built on solid heart affection. ) 

Nine-tenths of all the people in our land who are 
not prevented by stress of circumstances, or by im- 
paired health, would, if left to their own choice, 
prefer wedlock to celibacy. Yet an immense num- 
ber of intelligent and virtuous persons are to-day 
unmarried. 

I have not the least doubt that one reason why 
many of these are now single is that they have lost 



TRIFLING WITH AFFECTIONS. 23 

the object of their affection by death. Such was the 
well-known case of Washington Irving, and of many 
others that I could name. 

Another is that the hopes of many have been 
disappointed and their affections have been cruelly 
trifled with. 

Many a young girl has given her heart to a young 
man only to have her love shamefully tampered with 
and remorselessly flung away. God only knows 
how many aching hearts are concealed beneath 
faces that strive hard to wear a smile. 

Nor is this sin against the affections confined to 
one sex. Sometimes it is the young woman who 
stoops to the degradation of being a silly flirt or a 
frivolous coquette. She takes a wicked pride in 
boasting of her conquests, and in having a platoon 
of suitors at her feet. Such conscienceless triflers 
are often punished by being left to what is anything 
but a "single blessedness^'^ or else are driven to the 
alternative of a " poor stick " or no husband at all. 
They reap as they have sown. 

My young friends, allow me to olfer to you a few 
frank and fatherly words on a matter that not only 
concerns your happiness, but most vitally concerns 
your Christian character. What is called fiirtijig is 
not only a wretched folly ; it is a heinous sin. It 
is a playing with fire in which you are likely to be 
badly burned. It is a game of deception in which 



24 



WELL-BUILT. 



you may excite hopes only to end in cruel disap- 
pointment. It is a wanton tampering with that 
most sensitive and sacred thing, the affection of a 
trusting heart. It is a burning disgrace in the eye 
of a sin-hating God ; and, if it is practised deliber- 
ately and persistently, you may well doubt if you 
are a Christian at all. If, indeed, you be a Chris- 
tian, you should meet a temptation to a sin like this 
as you would meet a temptation to licentiousness, 
or fraud, or tippling, or gambling, or desecration of 
God's day. 

" Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord ; " 
and there is no species of lying more abominable 
than that which deceives a confiding heart. You 
may not go to the length of a solemn marriage- 
engagement, or be guilty of what in a court of law 
or in the court of conscience would be clearly a 
" breach of promise." But you are exciting delusive 
hopes ; you are practising a cruel fraud ; you are 
for your own mean gratification playing a game of 
pretence whose sad consequences you cannot repair. 

" Thou shalt not steal," is a divine commandment. 
Is a robbery of the heart's affections any less a crime 
than a robbery of a purse ? " Deceive not with thy 
lips," is another divine commandment. Let me tell 
you that there is no deception more shamefully dis- 
honorable than that which is so frequently perpe- 
trated under the hollow pretence of being " only a 



TRIFLING WITH AFFECTIONS. 25 

mere flirtation." Even if your contemptible sham- 
ming of serious attentions does not prevent your vic- 
tim from receiving the addresses of other worthier 
friends, you are lowering yourself in the eyes of 
others and bringing just reproach on your Christian 
character. To be a fop betrays want of brains ; to 
be a flirt shows want of honest heart. 

This is a very practical matter that I am present- 
ing. The societies of Christian Endeavor are com- 
posed of both sexes, who are brought into intimate 
social and personal relations. Young men and 
young women attend the same meetings, serve on 
the same committees, and are thrown together con- 
stantly. This is not only unavoidable, but perfectly 
right. 

The friendships formed in those Christian circles 
often ripen into deep attachments, and eventuate in 
happy marriages. I have often joined in wedlock 
those whose acquaintance commenced in the young 
people's devotional meetings. 

But the very freedom and familiarity that is 
engendered by these social and religious gatherings 
should awaken the most delicate and prudent watch- 
fulness. " The tempter hath a snare for all ; " and 
one of the snares into which young people are 
liable to fall is that which, under the light name of 
" flirting," may involve unsuspected mischief, and 
often untold miseries. 



26 



WELL-BUILT. 



The Creator made a very delicate, a very sensitive, 
and a very precious thing when he made a human 
heart. Out of it are " the issues of life." It is too 
sacred to be trifled with ; and dearly will he or she 
who trifles with the heart's affections pay the pen- 
alty. 

The voice of the blessed Master who presides 
over all your gatherings and all your work is, " I 
say unto you all, Watch /^^ 



IV. 



THE GREAT MISCHIEF OF SOME LITTLE 
THINGS. 

HE character of many a young man is 
sadly damaged by what he considers 
small faults, and the success in life of 
many a one has been hindered by what 
he regarded as small things. The mistake he makes 
is in his moral measurements. Little things become 
great things when they work great mischief. In the 
West Indies there is a worm that gnaws out the 
interior of an apparently solid piece of timber, and 
when a sudden strain is put on the timber, it snaps 
and fills the eyes with a fine powder. Weaknesses 
may be multiplied until they outmatch strength. 
Small faults may fracture a whole character. 

The Bible — which throws its divine light on 
every phase of human character — illustrates the 
mischief wrought by the " small things " in the 
following pithy text from the Song of Solomon : 
" Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the 
vineyards ; for our vineyards are in blossom " (so 
27 




28 



WELL-BUILT. 



the Revised Version renders the passage). Those 
mischievous animals had a propensity to nibble 
away the blossoms of the grape-vines, so that the 
vintage was destroyed. Though the foxes were 
" little," the damage was great. 

If you will turn to the New Testament, you will 
see that Christians were represented by Christ as 
the branches of a vine ; and a noble, well-developed, 
and useful character is what every branch ought to 
produce. Besetting sins are the sly foxes that spoil 
the vintage. 

My young friend, do not put a false measurement 
on that word "j-//?." It does not mean only huge 
offences like profanity or drunkenness, theft or per- 
jury, adultery or murder; it means anything that 
violates conscience, mars the beauty of your charac- 
ter, damages your usefulness, and hinders honorable 
success. The word " sin " in the Bible literally 
signifies to miss the mark, or miss your aim. If 
you fail to hit the mark of absolute right, a miss is 
as good as a mile. And then, what if you miss 
heaven ? 

The brilliant McLaren, of Manchester, has truly 
said that " the worst sin is not some outburst of gross 
transgression, forming an exception to the ordinary 
tenor of a life, — bad and dismal as such a sin is ; 
but the worst and most fatal are the small continu- 
ous vices which root under ground and honeycomb 



SOME LITTLE THINGS. 



29 



the soul. Many a man who thinks himself a 
Christian is in more danger from the daily commis- 
sion, for example, of small pieces of sharp practice 
in his business than ever was David at his worst. 
White ants pick a carcass clean sooner than a lion 
will." 

Instead, therefore, of trying to whitewash your 
faults by calling them only " infirmities " and " weak- 
nesses," you had better label them by their true 
name of vices and sins. Everything that is not right 
is wrong. 

There is a pretty large lot of these little foxes 
which work great mischief to Christian character 
and to a real success in life. One of these is a bad 
temper. Pray don't dismiss this as a mere foible or 
natural infirmity. It is a sin, and of very ugly 
dimensions, though you may think it small. An 
irritable temper — whether it explodes like gun- 
powder, or simmers and stews over a slow fire of 
sullenness — is a violation of the central, cardinal 
Christian grace of love. It is a sin against the grace 
of patience, and against the grace of humility and 
against the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It has an ugly 
root, for it is born of hatred, which is the very spirit 
of the devil. 

Don't confound the vice of an irritable temper 
with the virtue of a righteous indignation against 
wrong ; for God himself abhorreth evil. Professor 



30 



WELL-BUILT. 



Drummond describes a deadly, venomous snake 
which he saw in Africa, called the puff-adder; it 
coils itself among the leaves, and resembles the 
leaves. When you get angry, stop and think 
whether Jesus Christ or the devil is stirring you up. 
An irritable temper is not to be condoned as a 
" natural weakness " or a constitutional infirmity ; 
drunkenness or licentiousness may be hereditary, 
but they are none the less wicked and destructive. 

You can cure a bad temper, if you try to, — with 
God's help. One of the kindest and calmest 
Christians I ever knew told me that he used to be 
violently passionate, but he broke his bad temper 
by resolutely bridling his tongue until he cooled 
down. 

If procrastination is not as wicked a fault as 
a hateful temper, it is fatal to success in about 
everything worth your doing. The Bible in- 
junction to " redeem your time " does not refer to 
time in general, but to the " nick of time." The 
text properly translated means. Buy your oppor- 
tunities. Success in earning money, success in 
achieving any good undertaking, success in doing 
anything for your Master, all depend on this seizing 
of the opportunity. 

Poor Slowcome Tardy is always whining about 
his " bad luck ; " the reason why he will wear a poor 
man's hair into his grave is that he is always behind 



SOME LITTLE THINGS. 



31 



time ; he does not buy till everything has gone up, 
or sell till everything has gone down, or hoist his 
sails until the wind has died out. 

Never let a duty drift past you. Jesus Christ 
never lost an opportunity. Procrastination is the 
worst of thieves, for it steals what never can be re- 
stored to us. To-morrow is the fool's paradise ; for 
human souls it is Satan's doorway to perdition. 

Is want of piinctiiality a sin Yes, because it 
often involves a violation of your word, and is an 
acted falsehood. It also involves a serious wrong 
to other people. You may recall Washington's 
answer to his secretary who excused his want of 
punctuality by saying that his watch was out of 
order. " Then you must get another watch, or I 
another secretary." 

Tardiness and carelessness in keeping engage- 
ments may be regarded as small faults, but they are 
things that hinder a young man's success ; and you 
must remember that most failures in this world are 
not caused by other people, but by the persons 
themselves. Failure in life is more than a misfor- 
tune ; it is a terrible sin, it is a suicide, when such 
want of success is due to your own want of sense, 
or want of conscience. God is only true to the man 
who is true to himself. 

Dr. McLaren, in the pungent passage above 
quoted, alludes to " sharp practices in business." 



32 



WELL-BUILT. 



It is a lamentable fact that more than one professing 
Christian is inclined to them. It comes from that 
detestable vice that I warn you against, and that is 
trickiness. Smartness is too many a young man's 
ambition and constant aim ; to be smart in taking 
advantage of a customer, smart in a bit of stock- 
gambling, or smart in dodging an obligation. 

You never can be smart enough to cheat God, — 
even in the smallest transactions in life. Conscience 
is your best friend and counsellor, if you are true to 
her ; when you begin to play sharp tricks upon her, 
she becomes your terrible punisher. Incorruptible 
honesty is your best capital in business. 

If time and space permitted, I could mention 
many other things which young men reckon to be 
small faults, but which deface character and hinder 
honorable success. Backsliding from Christ starts 
with small slips at first. Spiritual declension begins 
with little offences against the laws of honesty or 
sexual purity, or occasional neglects of Christian 
duty, and quietings of a reproving conscience. 

When burglars want to plunder a house, they 
sometimes hoist a small boy into a window, and he 
unbolts the doors for the older accomplices. Be 
careful how you let Satan's little imps slip into an 
open window of your heart. 

A Christian Endeavor society is a vineyard in a 
state of blossoming. Young converts are setting out 



SOME LITTLE THINGS. 



33 



on a new life. Character has not yet attained 
strong fibre and solidity. Experience is limited. 
Small faults and slight departures from Christ's 
commandments will grow on, and wax worse and 
worse, unless they are resolutely resisted and over- 
come. 

If the little foxes will devour the blossoms, or 
steal away the "tender grapes," then every one 
must with prayer and watchfulness guard his own 
vine, and make short work with the foxes. 

My friend, you have only one life to live ; its 
success or failure for time and eternity will depend 
upon little things. I beg you, don't go off fox- 
hunting in your neighbor's vineyard; look squarely 
and sharply after the little destructives that threaten 
the beauty and the fruitfulness of your own vine. 



HOW TO DEAL WITH TEMPTATIONS. 



O society of Christian Endeavor, no 
Christian church, was ever built for a 
conservatory in which to rear hothouse 
plants of grace ; the only piety worth 
having is that which can stand all weathers. God 
does not take his own out of this world because it is 
overrun with sinful seductions ; he promises to keep 
his faithful children from the world, and, what is 
better, to make them a purifying salt in the world. 
More or less temptation is inevitable. They " over- 
take us," as Paul says in his letter to the Galatians. 
Bunyan's pilgrim did not go out of his straight road 
in order to meet Madam Wanton ; she waylays him 
with her wicked wiles. Joseph did not seek his 
temptress ; she sought him, but the fear of God 
made his heart like wet powder that would not kin- 
dle under the torch of temptation. During the 
Revolutionary War, neither Joseph Reed nor Bene- 
dict Arnold went after the offer of British gold ; it 
came to them both ; Reed spurned the bribe as if it 
34 




HOW TO DEAL WITH TEMPTATIONS. 35 

were poison ; Arnold at the sound of the jingling 
gold caught at the glittering bribe, and it burned him 
to a cinder. 

Temptations are as all-surrounding as the atmos- 
phere. Just as the wintry winds search into every 
crack and crevice of our houses, so Satan hunts 
and pries at every loophole of the heart with artful 
suggestions. When he presents himself at our front 
door, he hides his horns under a silk hat, and con- 
ceals his forked tail under the broadcloth suit of a 
gentleman. Sin is everywhere ; it assails us through 
the eye-gate, through the ear-gate and the mouth- 
gate ; it invades the pocket, and carries a tinder-box 
to inflame the pride and selfish ambition. Even 
the humblest Christian may be tempted to grow com- 
placent over his humility, and the most consecrated 
laborer for Christ is in danger of flattering himself 
with the congratulation, " O, how my work pros- 
pers ! how my vineyard flourishes ! " Righteous 
self needs about as much watching as sinful self. 

Let us carefully observe, however, just what the 
word " temptation " means. In our English Bibles 
the word is employed in two entirely different 
senses. Sometimes it signifies a test, as when a 
metal is put into the crucible to prove its quality, 
and to develop its purity. That is the meaning of 
the word in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis, 
where we are told that " God did tempt Abraham ; " 



36 



WELL-BUILT. 



we find the confirmation of this in the eleventh 
chapter to the Hebrews, where we read that " by 
faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up 
Isaac." The word " temptation," commonly signi- 
fies, both in the Scriptures and in ordinary speech, 
a direct enticement to evil, under the prospect of 
pleasure or of profit. Unless there is something 
attractive in the object presented to us, we cannot 
call it a temptation. Arsenic and brandy are both 
fatal poisons to a drunkard ; but the brandy is the 
only temptation, because that is the only one of the 
two that appeals to his appetite, and promises imme- 
diate gratification. The strength of a tempation 
depends on the strength of sinful desires within a 
man. It requires no grace to reject what we do not 
like. A torch does no mischief when it is tossed 
into a snow-bank ; it is the torch in the powder- 
barrel that makes the fatal explosion. 

Let me impress it upon young Christians that 
when an attractive evil object presents itself to you, 
and there is something within you that would like 
to consent to that evil, then comes the danger. 
Right then and there your Christian conscience 
must fight its battle. Some of you may have nat- 
urally strong sensual passions or animal appetites. 
The real sin is not in having such unfortunately bad 
propensities ; the sin is in yielding to them. The 
real victory of divine grace in your soul is to refuse 



HOW TO DEAL WITH TEMPTATION'S. 3/ 



the most attractive enticements to sin, even those 
that jump with your natural incUnations. Then 
the Spirit conquers the flesh. The clean heart pos- 
sessed by Jesus Christ conquers the cravings of sen- 
sual appetite. Benevolence overcomes selfishness ; 
a love for perishing souls conquers worldly ambition, 
and makes a brilliant young man ready to sacrifice 
wealth or promotion in order to devote himself to 
the self-denying toils of a foreign missionary. The 
will is the battle-ground with every one of us. If 
evil desires control the will, sin reigns ; if a Chris- 
tian conscience controls the will, grace reigns. 
David's crime was not in his natural admiration of 
Bathsheba's beauty; his crime was in the wicked 
surrender of his will to a powerful sensual entice- 
ment. In his case lust conquered conscience, and 
the lust, as he afterwards bitterly confessed, brought 
forth death. 

Temptations are bribes to our selfishness, and 
we are all liable to encounter them continually. 
But when we go out to look after such bribes, and 
encourage them, then comes the wickedness. There- 
fore our blessed Master enjoins on us that most lov- 
ing and solemn counsel, — ■ " Watch and pray, lest ye 
enter into temptation." A person enters into temp- 
tation when he wilfully places himself under the in- 
fluence of an enticement to sin, and continues to 
parley with it. If the cholera is an epidemic, then 



38 



WELL-BUILT. 



every one is exposed to it. But the person that 
goes unvaccinated into a house where the smallpox 
is raging has no right to ask God to save him from 
the loathsome disorder. The young Christian that 
buys a ticket to the average theatre, with its abound- 
ing sensualities, has no right to pray, " Lead me not 
into temptation, but deliver me from evil ; " such a 
person is thrusting his fingers into Satan's mouth. 
No amount of resolving to do right will save you if 
you remain under the influences that lead you to go 
wrong. As Henry Ward Beecher once bluntly said, 
" If a man wears garments in which powder is 
wrought into the texture, he cannot safely go and 
hire out in a blacksmith's shop." 

The moment that any one goes towards a danger- 
ous object with a secret desire after that object, 
that moment he or she " enters into temptation." 
I have known many persons to put a bottle of wine 
on the table under the specious plea that health re- 
quired it. The deceitful drink got its hold upon 
them before they were aware. A habit coiled itself 
around them like that South American vine that 
coils itself around a tree until it strangles the tree, 
and holds only a blasted trunk in its green and 
glossy embrace. From a long observation I am 
thoroughly persuaded that any one, even a sincere 
Christian, who, for any reason whatever, tampers 
with any intoxicating beverage, is playing with a 



HOW TO DEAL WITH TEMPTATIONS. 39 

viper. No church-member ever dreamed of becom- 
ing an inebriate when he " entered into the tempta- 
tion." What is true of the wine-cup is equally true 
of gaming, or of the first acts of dishonesty, or of 
violations of sexual purity. Can any one take coals 
of fire into his bosom and not be burned ? We 
often wonder how, under a sudden temptation, cer- 
tain persons have fallen from a high position into 
disgrace and ruin. If we knew the secret history of 
such cases, we should discover that they had been 
dallying with temptation until they had been weak- 
ened and corrupted by it. The fibre of the tree had 
become worm-eaten before the gale struck it. No 
man goes to hell suddenly. 

Every one of you, my young friends, has some 
vulnerable point. Post your sentinel right there ; 
watch and pray right there. Beware of the sin that 
has a handsome face and a smooth tongue. Hid- 
eous sins attract nobody. Beware of the sin that 
doth so easily entrap you. Form no intimacy with 
any one that lowers the tone of your religion. Be- 
ware of those places and those amusements, however 
attractive, that weaken your love of Christ and unfit 
you for prayer and doing your whole duty as a 
pledged Endeavorer in Christ's army. 

Strong as temptations are, the indwelling power 
of divine grace is an overmatch for them. If you 
are true to your Master, he will succor you when 



40 



WELL-BUILT. 



tempted ; the victory that overcometh is your faith, 
not in yourselves, but in the omnipotent Son of God, 
whose you are, and whom you serve. Triumphs 
over temptations will strengthen you. The Indians 
have a superstition that the strength of every enemy 
a warrior slays in battle enters into his own limbs. 
This is an actual truth in regard to a Christian. 
He becomes stronger for every temptation whose 
" scalp " he wins, and every besetting sin that he 
slays. Next to the joy of saving a soul is the joy 
of victory in a hard fight with a spiritual foe. 
Three things make a happy Christian : they are 
prayer, labors of love for Christ, and triumphs over 
strong temptations. 



VI. 



THE WISE SAVING OF MONEY. 

ONEY is a large word, because it fills a 
large space every day in the thoughts of 
people, both rich and poor, and because 
it makes a large provision for all the 
necessaries of life. It " answereth all things ; " that 
is, it procures those things that none of us can do 
without. 

The desire to get money is a universal instinct ; 
it is a legitimate desire ; there is no sin in possess- 
ing money ; the real sin comes in when money pos- 
sesses us. It is the love of money that is the root 
of all evil, because it breeds detestable selfishness, 
and hardens the heart towards God and our fellow 
men. 

The Bible thunders out the most tremendous 
warnings against those who " will be rich," who 
make wealth the chief object of their desire, and 
tells all such that they fall into temptation and 
snares and hurtful lusts, which drown men in de- 
struction and perdition. Jesus Christ tells us that 
41 




42 



WELL-BUILT. 



the " deceitfulness of riches " makes a bed of thorns 
in the heart that strangles the seed of divine truth 
and cheats a man out of his salvation ! All that 
multitude of young men who are in a mad haste to 
be rich, and all those young women who are intent 
on marrying wealth, will do well to heed old 
Matthew Henry's wise words, " There is a burden 
of care in getting riches, fear in keeping them, 
temptation in using them, sorrow in losing them, 
and a burden of account at last to be given up con- 
cerning them." 

All these things being true, how should a young 
Christian regard money ? For it is to young Chris- 
tians that I am now writing. 

I would answer that you should regard it just as 
you regard your time, or your health, or your talents, 
or your influence ; you should look at it as a trust. 
You are stewards of Jesus Christ for everything you 
have ; and you ought to see his image and super- 
scription on every dollar you possess. 

Wilful poverty that is produced by indolence or 
extravagance or reckless mismanagement, is more 
than a misfortune ; it is a disgrace and a sin. On 
the other hand, great wealth may be great wicked- 
ness when conscience has no control of the purse. 

Money is power ; in these days it is a prodigious 
power for Jesus Christ, and for human welfare. I 
never shall forget a remark made to me by our 



THE WISE SAVING OF MONEY. 43 

Christian millionaire, the late Charles Pratt, the 
founder of the " Pratt Institute." He said, " There 
is no greater humbug than the idea that the mere 
possession of money makes a man happy ; I never 
got real happiness out of mine till I began to do 
good with it." Yet Charles Pratt began life as a 
poor and industrious boy, and he never would have 
become the public benefactor that he was if he had 
not understood the wise saving and use of money. 

Many a fool has made money ; it is the wise man 
who knows how to save it and use it. 

Economy is a rather old-fashioned word, and 
not very popular in these days, — especially among 
the politicians, who get their long arms into the 
public treasury. Extravagance is the raging sin of 
the times. From the national government, which 
spends more than it receives, down to the farmer, 
who wastes more than his family eats, we are the 
most wasteful nation on the globe. 

There is an extravagant style of living that breeds 
no little misery, and often ends in disgrace. Some 
young men tell me that they cannot afford to marry 
because " the girls are not satisfied unless they can 
live in style ; " whereas these young men cannot af- 
ford notXo marry, for they are often living in secret 
sin. Of those who do marry, how many there are 
who, in their silly ambition to get " into society," 
refuse to live frugally, dress plainly, and reside in 



44 



WELL-BUILT. 



economical quarters ! The wretched husband racks 
his brains for means to keep up appearances, and is 
tempted to rash speculations and gambling opera- 
tions, in some cases to secret frauds. More than 
one husband has been tempted to ruin in order to 
gratify the fooHsh passion of his wife for fine equi- 
page and fine display. 

I wish that every young woman had the good 
sense of a lady friend of mine who received an offer 
of marriage from a poor, but industrious and honest, 
young man. He said to her, " You have a chance 
to marry wealth and live in style ; I can offer you 
nothing but a good name and sincere love and 
quarters in a plain boarding-house." She was wise 
enough to discover the jewel in the " leaden casket," 
and accepted him. He became a prosperous mer- 
chant and an office-bearer in my church. That 
young couple had the courage to live above appear- 
ances, and made frugality a part of their religion. 

Economy is not — or ought not to be — a matter 
of niggardly penuriousness, but of high moral prin- 
ciple. You have no right to spend what you do not 
have, or what is not in sight. I beg you to strike 
for an honest independence, so that, although you 
wear a coarse coat, you are not ashamed to look 
any man in the face. 

Keep out of debt as you would keep from the 
devil. It is the horrible slavery that drives sleep 



THE WISE SAVING OF MONEY, 45 

from the eyes, and peace from the mind, and 
sometimes drives to despair and disgrace. Debt 
has destroyed more than one Christian character. 
"The borrower is slave to the lender." 

If you learn how to save money you will not 
be driven to the humiliating necessity of asking for 
loans, — which is often a real asking for alms. I 
could tell tales of the conduct of borrowers that 
would make you blush for human nature. To see a 
Christian Endeavorer sneak over to the other side 
of the street to avoid meeting the person to whom 
he or she owes money, is not an edifying spectacle. 

Face hard work, face a scanty purse, face the 
sharpest self-denial, face anything rather than be 
ashamed to face any fellow creature, or even your- 
self when you look in a glass. " Owe no man any- 
thing but love." 

Christian economy means more yet than saving 
up money for a rainy day. It means also saving up 
something for the Lord and for benevolent uses. 
The great apostle commanded Christians in those 
days to lay by in store on the first day of the week 
as God had prospered them ; and then they would 
be sure to have something for the cause of Christ. 

Systematic beneficence is a part of healthy reli- 
gion. But if you have not learned to save money, 
you will not be able to give it. Economy is the 
mother of liberality. My observation has been that 



46 



WELL-BUILT. 



those who have practised the wisest economy in 
their early Hfe are commonly the most generous 
givers after they have become prosperous. 

How are you going to save money ? Are you to 
accomplish it only by practising a selfish stinginess ? 
No ! A skinflint is as contemptible as a spend- 
thrift. The only way to do it is to regulate your 
outgo by your income. Cut down false expenses. 
" Flee youthful lusts " in the shape of cigars, and 
clubs, and all kinds of sensual indulgences. Never 
mortgage to-morrow to pay for to-day. 

Blessed be the memory of the Rev. Henry Dun- 
can, of Scotland, the founder of the modern savings- 
banks ! He deserves a place alongside of William 
Carey, the father of foreign missions, and Neal 
Dow, the father of the prohibition movement, and 
Francis E. Clark, the father of Christian Endeavor 
societies. When you put a dollar safely out of your 
reach, you enforce self-denial, and ensure future 
comfort when that one dollar has doubled. 

Remember that your Christianity has got to be 
carried into your finances, as truly as into your de- 
votions ; and frugaUty, like cleanliness, is one of the 
fruits of godliness. 



VII. 



USE YOUR GIFTS. 

S I look out of my window to-day into the 
little yard behind my dwelling, I see that 
everything there is busy. That cherry- 
tree is putting out its buds ; that grape- 
vine is pumping up sap to give juice to its future 
clusters; the catalpa-tree is ripening its seed-pods 
for propagation ; the grass is sprouting ; and that 
early crocus and that narcissus are tempting the 
bees to stop and catch a morning meal. There is 
not an idler among them. Everyone of them seems 
to be heeding the injunction of Paul to Timothy, 
" Neglect not the gift that is in thee." 

Some reader of the title to this chapter may say, 
" I have not any gifts to use." Yes, you have. 
You are not an idiot, or else you would not be read- 
ing this book. You may not have a particle of 
genius ; for geniuses are very scarce, and I shed no 
tears over that fact. If the Almighty had intended 
that his kingdom should be built up only by men 
or women of genius, he would have created vastly 
47 




48 



WELL-BUILT. 



more of them. There is one immense lantern down 
yonder in the Sandy Hook Ughthouse, but Brooklyn 
will be lighted to-night by a million or more little 
lamps and candles in all its dwellings. My friend, 
you may be only a penny candle ; but do not smoke 
or go out ; shine. You may be only a very humble 
private in the vast army of the Lord ; yet the most 
brilliant commander-in-chief w^ould be powerless if 
he had not his thousands of private soldiers to do 
the fighting. Christ's battles must be fought and 
won by the rank and file. The negro that carries 
a water-pail behind the regiment has his place. 

In the glorious work of the ministry there are 
occasionally a Spurgeon, a McLaren, a Simpson, a 
Phillips Brooks, and a Moody, whose voices are 
heard over a continent or throughout Christendom. 
God gave them great gifts for a great work. Yet in 
his sight they are worthy of no more honor than is 
due the frontier missionary that tramped five miles 
last Sunday to preach Jesus to a mining camp, or 
the Salvation Army lassie that was fishing for souls 
in the slums. Where the Master endows and calls 
one Spurgeon, he calls to the same high calling ten 
thousand other men less famous ; for a call to the 
ministry simply means the ability to preach Christ's 
gospel and the willingness of people to hear you. 
Both are essential. I know a most conscientious 
and godly brother whose life has been a failure 



USE YOUR GIFTS. 



49 



because he never could gather auditors enough to 
make a congregation. As a layman, an elder, a 
class-leader, a deacon, or a Sunday-school teacher, 
he might be a useful soul-winner. " There are 
diversities of gifts." Find out what God made you 
for, and what the Holy Spirit converted you for ; 
then take your place and stick to it. 

As far as the practical business of soul-saving and 
soul-helping is concerned, we overestimate the prov- 
ince of the ordained ministry ; and then, as a 
consequence, we overload the ministers with a re- 
sponsibility that does not belong to them. We talk 
about Mr. A's church, or Dr. B's church, whereas it 
is really Christ's flock, with A or B as the leader and 
shepherd. Is all the spreading of the gospel to be 
done by us ministers ? God forbid. We have no 
monopoly of that blessed joy and spiritual luxury. 
The glorious business of setting forth Jesus Christ 
in this broad land is not to be done by the less than 
one hundred thousand men that have been officially 
ordained to the ministry. What are our barley 
loaves for sixty millions of immortal souls ? The 
commission to preach Christ after some fashion 
belongs to every one that has received Christ. No 
sooner does the Holy Spirit make you a Christian 
than you are bound to become a soul-winner. Con- 
verting grace is itself a heavenly gift ; neglect not 
that gift that is in thee. My eloquent friend, the 



50 



WELL-BUILT. 



late Dr. Roswell D. Hitchcock, once said : "I con- 
fess that I do not see how Christianity is ever to 
carry the day unless the great bulk of our church- 
membership becomes also a ministry. Is it possible 
for any man to become a true Christian, and yet be 
doing nothing to make other people Christians too 1 " 
Who wants to go up to heaven empty-handed 

There is a tremendous amount of power running 
to waste in our churches. Of all the immense vol- 
ume of water, how little is turned on the wheels ! 
Educated young men come back from college, and 
yet how few of them employ their gifts in practical 
work for their Master ! Lawyers that are church- 
members plead eloquently in court-rooms for their 
clients ; but, with some happy exceptions, they are 
as a class too silent in our prayer-meetings and Sun- 
day schools. A young clerk in a store or shop is 
glib enough in selling goods, but is tongue-tied in 
commending Christ to his companions. Some young 
women have a very wide influence in the circle to 
which they belong ; and in the last great day Jesus 
Christ will call them to account for that influence, 
just as surely as he will call Dr. Clark and myself to 
account for our ministry. The great thing, after all, 
is to have a heart for the work, and the whole heart 
in the work. In the first church that I ever served 
as pastor there was a modest youth, a humble me- 
chanic, who had no education beyond what he had 



USE YOUR GIFTS. 



51 



picked up in the public school. Of his own accord 
he gathered a company of boys on Saturday eve- 
nings into a room in his father's house, and spent 
an hour in praying and talking with them, and get- 
ting them to talk. He was really a shy fellow, with 
very little personal magnetism ; but several of those 
lads were converted, and one of them entered the 
ministry. To that humble, godly youth the Master 
had given only a little farthing candle ; but he 
held his candle in such a way, and so kept it burn- 
ing by a strong current of prayer oxygen, that he 
guided several young hearts to the Saviour. He 
simply used his gift, and got compound interest on 
it. Up yonder, in the great day, there will be some 
wonderful surprises. Some of the last will come in 
first ; and too many of the first in culture, or wealth, 
or talent, or influence, will be sent to the rear to 
keep company with that cowardly fool who hid his 
talent in a napkin. 

A Christian that loves his or her Master, and is 
keen for work, will always find the place to work. 
A properly managed society of Christian Endeavor 
is not only an arena for various activities, but a 
training-school for activities elsewhere. Mental and 
spiritual gifts, when unused, become tainted, and spoil 
like bales unopened to the sun. Spiritual faculties 
unemployed are like the limbs of the human body ; 
they wither up foi want of use. The best benefit 



52 



WELL-BUILT. 



of a wide-awake, earnest, fervent Christian Endeavor 
meeting is not tlie addresses made, the prayers 
offered, and the instructions gained at the time, but 
the inspiration carried away for Christly living and 
the doing of good deeds elsewhere. 

Lord, what wilt thou have me do ? What can I 
do best for my Master ? These are the questions 
for you to ask. If you are apt to teach, then let 
every Sunday find you with your class, even though 
the hot sun is streaming or the fierce rain is dashing 
on the pavements. Next to a loving heart of your 
own, the best gift of a Sunday-school teacher is not 
the cramming into your children, but the drawing out 
what is in )^our children's hearts. Some people of 
moderate talents and education become a great 
power in a Sunday-school by the power of their own 
noble personality and the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. Have you a voice to sing? Then use it 
for God's praise, and rehearse here for the grand 
choir in glory. Have you time, or can you make 
time, to visit the sick or poverty-stricken ? Then 
put a package of tracts and some creature comforts 
in your satchel, and go where Jesus Christ would 
go soonest if he were in your town. Harlan Page 
was a carpenter until he came into the New York 
Tract House ; but by practising the simple rule 
" never to be fifteen minutes with any one without 
doing him or her some good," he was the means of 



USE YOUR GIFTS. 



53 



winning more than one hundred souls to Christ. 
I firmly believe that Jesus has a place of service for 
every soul he redeems, high or humble. Not to find 
it is an awful misfortune ; not to fill it is an awful 
disgrace. Nothing is given to you or me " in fee 
simple : " everything is a trust to be used for him. 
I suspect that heaven will be only the continuation 
and enlargement and sublimation of the spiritual 
activities begun in this earthly school. Then what a 
monster is that idle Christian that never uses his 
gifts at all! 




Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

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